The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 24: Breaking Through

[Level 1]

[User: 0 / AI Dummy: 0]

Raising my sword diagonally ahead of my body and slightly bending my knees with my left leg in front of me, I glanced at the metal robot standing before me.

After completing the basic tutorial movements of jabbing, vertical and horizontal slashes, parrying, and chopping, I moved to actual fighting.

As the AI dummy took the first move, leaping toward me while aiming to vertically slash my right shoulder, I stepped backward.

Then, raising my sword above my head, I parried the vertical slash and pushed my sword upward while the robot pressed its sword downward.

For a moment, the AI dummy and I stood still, neither of our swords overpowering the other.

However, not even a moment later, I retracted my sword and side-stepped to the right, narrowly avoiding the bot’s continuing vertical slash.

Then, in a swift motion, I stepped toward the robot and thrusted my sword forward, the tip of my sword banging against the AI dummy’s metal exterior.

The blue screen to my right immediatly updated.

[User: 1 / AI Dummy: 0]

[Challenge mode: hit the robot ten times in a row without being hit once!]

As I turned away from the screen, I immediatly found myself facing a horizontal slash, aiming to slice my stomach.

Switching my sword to my left hand, I managed to parry the horizontal slash before it hit the left side of my stomach, saving myself a moment.

Stepping backward and letting the sword fly by ahead of me, I paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and jabbed my Dao forward at the AI dummy’s chest.

*CLANG*

As the tip of my Dao met the AI Dummy’s blade, I immediatly retracted my sword like a fencer and stepped backward.

Stepping to the right, I slashed my sword vertically above my head, aiming at the AI Dummy’s right shoulder, but the robot easily parried it.

Then, before I could retract my sword, the robot jabbed its wooden sword forward, hitting me right in the chest.

It took my move! Or rather...I took its move, and it took it back.

[Challenge failed!]

[Try again?]

I had hit a wall after only 2 days of training...

Looking at the robot, I couldn’t see any possible attack options that wouldn’t be blocked.

The only thing I could do was stay on the defensive and hope for a counter-attack opportunity.

Clicking my tongue, I left the AI dummy room, glancing at the night-black sky through the windows of the training hall.

It seemed my gift’s natural regenerative abilities did more than just help in combat: for the past 2 days, I hadn’t felt a single bit of exhaustion despite not sleeping a single minute.

Even in my fight against the robot, I felt as if I could continue fighting for hours at max energy.

Glancing down from the top floor of the training hall, I spotted two familiar figures shooting arrows.

*WHOOSH*

*WHOOSH*

*BAM*

*BAM*

The targets flying upward from the ground instantly shattered, Ren’s arrow hitting the bullseye while Carissa’s arrow clipped the edge of the target.

As Ren glanced upward, I sighed and took the elevator down, leaving the training hall and heading back to my dorm building.

After taking a quick shower, I immediatly went back outside, arriving at the library.

If I were alone in my room, Ren would just worry more and thus keep a closer eye on me, being more annoying.

Seeing a familiar blonde-haired girl before a stack of textbooks in the empty library, I smiled and marked her, a feeling of urgency and ambition overtaking me as all distractions vanished.

Taking a seat at a table in the corner, I glanced at my familiar light-blue status menu.

===Status Menu===

[User: Ash Fell]

--> Rank: G+ [Breakthrough]

--> Strength: G+

--> Stamina: G+

--> Intelligence: F-

--> Speed: F+

--> Mana Pool: G-

--> Luck: G

[Gift: Death’s Ledger] / [Rank: EX] / [Element: Death]

--> [Your eyes may perceive the souls of others directly: You may mark other souls to bear a portion of their pain or transfer a portion of your pain to their soul. Additionally, you may understand the internal emotions of marked souls further. Your passive regenerative abilities and power over the domain of death are also furthered.]

---> [Souls Reaped: 1]

--> [Gifted Ability: Anubis’s Ferry]: [Turn Intangible for a short period of time.]

[Skills]

--> [N/A]

If I couldn’t advance my swordmanship skills any further, I could just shift to increase my rank. I had waited long enough, already.

To achieve the qualification to attempt a breakthrough to the next letter-rank, all one had to do was have high enough stats.

However, even if you had the qualification, it was better to wait to maximize your chances.

Because if you failed a breakthrough, your rank would instantly drop to the lowest of that letter: for example, I would fall from G+ to G-.

With the increase in my stat menu from training, I now felt relatively confident.

Additionally, the process of breaking through was relatively simple at the lower ranks.

Taking a deep breath, I steeled my mind with the help of my mark on Evangel, completely shutting off my ears and eyes.

Though I couldn’t help but leak a bit of curiosity.

What would my domain look like?

Within a few moments, I found myself...in a cemetery.

Under a gloomy night-black star, devoid of any stars, and a half-moon, I stood atop a large patch of dark-green grass that seemed to stretch on for eternity.

There was a single gravestone on the endless field of grass with a name engraved in it.

[Peril]

"Ah..."

Every single hero had a core inside their body. And, inside of that core, is a hero’s domain.

To break through, all one has to do is reclaim their domain from whatever opponent the system creates.

And yet, in the dark-green field that stretched on for as far as the eye could see, all I could spot was a gravestone.

Ensuring I was right, I spent at least ten minutes walking across the field, but nothing appeared.

Was the system telling me...to get over Peril’s death?